More Turkey?!?

Turkey Trotting that is!

This might be a weird post.  I've been wanting to write up a little race recap on my Turkey Trot I did on Thanksgiving, but all the eating and laying on the couch watching What Not To Wear marathon and 24 kept me busy :)  I also had a good run last night after work that left me with a bunch of reflections about IM training and some other stuff.  So what do we start with first?  Who wants seconds of turkey trotting??

My Coach put an APB out on facebook about a last-minute Turkey Trot race early Thanksgiving morning. Once I saw it, I was in!  I've been wanting to check out this park for a while, Rockland Lake State Park, as my future long bike rides will pass by it.  I'm also planning on a fun long training day up there in April, where I'll bike from NYC to this park, run a half marathon then bike back home.  Now that's what I call a solid training day that I'm looking forward too! **does that make me crazy?

But I digress.... so I said heck yeah I'm in! And while my cool, normal friends were out boozing the night before Thanksgiving, I was cleaning out my closet, doing laundry and setting up my race outfit.  Yeah, I don't know if I can handle any more wild nights like these.

I met my Coach at 7am the next morning and we drove up to the park.  It was pretty chilly out but I decided to go with my 3/4 pants and my Chicago 10-10-10 long sleeve top.  I was cold at first but I certainly warmed up once I got running.

While this race was another local one, they at least had timing chips!  The start was the same as the last turkey trot where there were no corrals so it was a free for all.  We started near the front as Coach is super speedy and I, well, I'm not super speedy but there were bunches on young kids near the front that I'd knew I'd pass right away. 

I was wondering if I could pull off another 5 miler PR but I knew this course was hillier and it was much colder out.  We didn't really warm up so my muscles were pretty tight. 

Mile 1 - 8:26 This was too fast again for the first mile.  And this mile was uphill so my heart rate skyrocketed and I was breathing hard.  I focused on keeping my form and let people pass me up the hill.
Mile 2 - 8:32 Ok this felt better.  There was a little downhill reprieve but then another uphill made me work harder
Mile 3 - 8:28 Not bad - the course flattened out a bit and I was psyched I was holding a good pace again
Mile 4 - 8:36 What happened here? There weren't any major uphills.  I may have mentally slowed down a bit so that I would have gas at the end.  I'm still happy I kept it under 840 though!
Mile 5 - 8:18 SWEET!  I was able to make my last mile the fastest for the second race in a row!  I think I might have fallen in love with the 5 mile race :)

Total - 42:45 the second fastest 5 miler I've run ever!

Both of the past two races have been in my off season and I seem to be getting faster!  I think it's the combination of more rest (I hadn't run since Saturday but I did swim) and the no-pressure.  I don't need to be fast at these races.  I just like to run them for fun.  Maybe I need to think more like this with my A races of the season.  Ah, who I am kidding?? There's no way I'm gonna look at IMLP as a "no-pressure" race!  it's my first Ironman for goodness sakes :)

After writing about all the jolly goodness of my turkey trot, I'm gonna save my "reflections" for another day.  Plus, this post is getting WAY too long :)